Medium- to large-sized companies often have information technology (IT) infrastructure that is geographically distributed across multiple locations in different countries. Furthermore, this IT infrastructure may be divided into different zones of security, such as core enterprise zones with the highest security requirements, zones for development and test systems with lower security requirements, and perhaps areas like demilitarized zones (DMZs), where the systems hosting a company's web presence are located. Having operations that span multiple countries, such companies might need to comply with many different regulations applicable to the various information assets the company has. For example, sensitive information about customers and employees is governed by regulation in many countries.
An IT assets inventory system, change and configuration management database (CCMDB), or configuration management database (CMDB), is an IT repository that collects and stores information about IT assets known as configuration items (CIs), as well as descriptive relationships between those assets. CMDBs typically record three types of information about CIs: (i) technical attributes; (ii) ownership attributes; and (iii) relationship attributes. They may possess the ability to automatically discover information about CIs and to track changes to these assets over time as well. CMDBs help an organization track system configurations, understand the relationships (such as sources and dependencies) between the components of a system, and ensure that all changes are made using standardized and efficient methods, processes, and procedures that meet change objectives while minimizing detrimental impacts.
A metadata database, which may include a business glossary, provides a centralized location in an organization where enterprise business, technical, and operational metadata is stored, classified, and maintained. A typical metadata database stores terms and other business objects together with their associated semantics and relationships, including precise definitions, and allows only authorized individuals to make changes or access data elements with mandatory access control. Linked to the terms are logical and physical data models, as well as information about where they are deployed in operational systems such as databases. In addition, policies used to govern the IT assets linked to the terms through relationships between the terms and technical metadata may be part of a metadata database. Such a system promotes confident use of shared information and improved data governance throughout an organization by providing a consistent business context and meaning around IT assets, data, and business processes.
Security information and event management (SIEM) tools provide a range of services for analyzing, managing, monitoring, and reporting on IT security events and vulnerabilities. Such services typically include collection of events regarding monitored accesses and unexpected occurrences across the data network, and analyzing them in a correlative context to determine their contribution to profiled higher-order security events. They may also include analysis of firewall configurations, network topology and connection visualization tools for viewing current and potential network traffic patterns, correlation of asset vulnerabilities with network configuration and traffic to identify active attack paths and high-risk assets, and support of policy compliance monitoring of network traffic, topology and vulnerability exposures.
Information integration and governance (IIG) tools support data security and data privacy efforts by assuring the integrity of trusted data center information. They may include features for centralized controls for real-time data security and monitoring, fine-grained database auditing, automated compliance reporting, data-level access control, database vulnerability management, and auto-discovery of sensitive data.